In memory of our brother and son, Robert Bagnell,
who died moments after being tasered by police in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 23, 2004. Bob was the 7th Canadian to die and the 110th in North America.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Growing up in Valley Cottage, Joanna Blair remembers her younger brother as a kind, athletic boy who liked acting and played clarinet in the Nyack High School band.

Coming to terms with the events that led to Howard Hyde's descent into mental illness, culminating in his death in November 2007 on the floor of a jailhouse cell in Nova Scotia, has been a difficult process for her.

But what transpired in the time between when he was arrested and when he dropped to the ground unconscious has haunted Blair.

As the justice system continues to investigate Hyde's death, she and other family members are preparing to return to his grave for the anniversary of his death.

"There's a lot we're still questioning," Blair, 47, said recently. "What I'd like now is some resolution."

'Severe fear' of Tasers

The chain of events triggering Hyde's collapse began with a phone call in the early hours of Nov. 21, 2007, his sister said. Hyde, who was 45 and living in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, apparently had gone off the medication he had been taking to keep his mental episodes at bay. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in the early 1980s, he had acted out before, Blair said.

Hyde's common-law wife was on the phone with a psychiatric crisis hotline when he barged into the room and started hitting her. A respondent on the other end of the line called Halifax regional police, Blair recounted.

By the time they arrived, Hyde had fled from his apartment and disappeared into the woods. Officers found him 45 minutes later and charged him with assault. Still in an excited state, Hyde was taken to the police booking station about 1 a.m., where he struggled with officers, who used a Taser, Blair said. The jolt sent him into medical distress, she claims. "I still wonder why they had to Taser him," Blair said. "Howard had a severe fear of Tasering."

That morning wasn't the first time Hyde had experienced Taser shock. Officers had used a Taser on him less than three years earlier, as he lay on the bathroom floor of another apartment in Dartmouth, where he lived alone. Neighbors had heard him yelling out the windows and called police, she said.

After the more recent incident, Hyde was rushed to a hospital in the area, where he stayed for several hours before being discharged into police custody. "We were disappointed that the hospital released him without considering some kind of mental treatment," said Blair, who was living two hours away in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. "I still don't know why they sent him to a general hospital, instead of a psychiatric one. Instead of getting help, he went back to jail."

Hyde spent that night locked up in the Burnside Correctional Center in Dartmouth, pending a court appearance the next morning. When correction officers were preparing him for his arraignment on Nov. 22, 2007, another struggle ensued. This time, Hyde dropped to the floor of his cell, motionless.

He was pronounced dead soon after.

Rockland County roots

Years before the grimmer memories surfaced, Blair remembers a time when her brother would happily hit baseballs around the yard and play music for his school productions.

Blair and Hyde, both graduates of Nyack High School, were raised by their mother, Elizabeth Hyde, on Mountainview Avenue in Valley Cottage. "Howard had a fair number of friends," Blair recalled. "He played baseball and enjoyed acting."

While in school, she and Hyde held jobs as paper carriers for The Journal News. Hyde went on to work in the newspaper's circulation department for some time, she said.

"He was a nice young boy, a little quiet and reserved," recalled their cousin John Ratcliff, who lives in South Nyack. "He was a laid-back kid; not one to be the center of attention." But the "quiet" kid sometimes suffered unwanted attention, Blair said. She remembers a pair of bullies who would follow Hyde around after school. "One time, they held him down in the middle of the road when cars were coming," she said. "Another time, they dangled my brother over a Thruway overpass."

The siblings moved away from Valley Cottage after high school. Hyde went to college in upstate New York for two years before dropping out. Blair graduated in 1983 from the Cooper Union in New York City. Both moved to Nova Scotia in the mid-1980s.

Holding out hope

After Hyde's death, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Nova Scotia justice minister launched separate investigations into the use of Tasers. Less than two months ago, police and representatives from the minister's officer sat down with Hyde's family for a "briefing session" on his death, Blair said. According to a medical examiner's report, Hyde died of excited delirium due to paranoid schizophrenia, she said.

Halifax police contend that the death was not linked to the Taser.

"I've never heard of someone dying because of a Taser," Constable Jeff Carr of the Halifax Regional Police said recently. "We've had people die in our cells, but never as a result of Taser use."

A Taser gun shoots two electrical probes that lodge in a person's skin, then send electrical pulses through wires into the person's body, stunning the nervous system.

The department continues to use Tasers, he said. "Our policies have been updated, but there are no major changes," Carr added.

But Ron Honberg, the legal director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said there have been a "disturbing" number of people who died after a Taser was used on them. "In the United States, a fairly large number of people have died after being Tasered," he said. "Some of the circumstances make you raise your eyebrows. Tasers are very aggressively marketed without a real standard surrounding their usage."

Blair also wondered why Hyde was in jail and not in a hospital in the first place.

Mental-health advocates say this isn't an uncommon situation for people with mental disabilities. "Nationally, many people with disabilities inappropriately wind up in the criminal justice system because there's a lack of treatment resources," said Irene Levine, a psychologist in Orangeburg and co-author of "Schizophrenia for Dummies." "Many times clinicians don't provide outreach for these people," Levine said. "When people are untreated for a mental illness, they are more prone to violence. It's a tragic story that's repeated over and over."

Honberg said the answer lies in a stronger partnership between police and the mental-health system. "The ultimate answer is teaching police techniques on how to respond to these people," he said. "We don't believe they should be turning to Tasers unless they're in imminent danger. Tasers should be a last resort."

In the meantime, the justice minister has pledged to continue investigating Hyde's death.

Despite her hardships, Blair said she believes Hyde's death was not in vain. She envisions a justice system with a deeper empathy for those with mental disabilities.

"I feel there was a purpose to this," she said. "I believe his death is going to bring a focus to this and have a critical impact on this issue."

For the first time in a year, Blair is preparing to make a trip to Pine Grove Cemetery in Shelburne. There, in an unmarked grave, her brother was laid to rest. A stone tablet will be pressed into the earth, etched with his name, birth date and the date of his death.

"I do have a sense of peace. ... But I'm still holding out for answers," she said.

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taser-Related Deaths = 997+ in North America

See "A LIST OF THE DEAD"According to Taser International, the taser had nothing to do with any of these deaths. According to Amnesty International, the taser has been identified as either a cause or contributing factor in at least 60 of them. That number would be higher; however medical examiners and coroners are often not impartial but are instead biased in favour of the Crown or, as has been shown, they are under tremendous pressure from - among others - Taser International, to make a particular finding.See Judge rules for Taser in cause-of-death decisions

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Taser International finally admits risk that their weapons may affect the human heart

RCMP - TASERS POTENTIALLY LETHAL

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My Brother - Robert Bagnell June 27, 1959 - June 23, 2004

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2) Until such time as independent and unbiased study into the "real world" safety implications of Tasers has been properly completed, a moratorium must be imposed upon these weapons.

3) If, after independent and unbiased study has been completed, the Taser is going to remain in the police arsenal, it must be placed at a level equal to lethal force on the continuum of force and used only as a second-to-last resort.

4) Safety standards must be developed for Tasers. There are currently no Canadian safety standards in place for this weapon.

5) Police must not be allowed to investigate themselves but must be subject to independent and unbiased civilian oversight.

6) Families of people who die in police custody in Canada must be provided with funding so that they may be properly represented by legal counsel.

07. Robert Bagnell, 44 – Vancouver, BC - June 23, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Consistent with restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to acute cocaine intoxication and psychosis. Bob's autopsy report showed marks on his body consistent to multiple taser shots, which incidently could not be affirmed by the pathologist because she could not explain those marks.

09. Samuel Truscott, 43 – Kingston, ON - August 8, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Heart attack cause by drug overdose and "I can state categorically that the Taser did not play any role whatsoever in his death" said Chief Coroner for Ontario, Jim Cairns

24. Michael Langan, 17, Winnipeg, MB - July 22, 2008 - tasered 1 time - the autopsy report says Langan's death was caused by a heart arrhythmia brought on by the Taser shocks

25. Sean Reilly, 42 - Brampton, ON - September 17, 2008 - Peel Regional Police - X26 - tasered 2 times - the inquest jury will determine the official cause of death, however, “the forensic evidence indicated that the force used by the officers, including the Taser discharge, did not contribute to his death"

27. Trevor Grimolfson, 38 - Edmonton, AB - October 29, 2008, X26 - According to sources, after he was pepper sprayed, Trevor was tasered directly on the chest 5 times and tasered on the back of the neck 2 more times - Edmonton police said he was only tasered 2 times but testing on the tasers proves otherwise - "Official" cause of death: excited delirium brought on by drugs

29. Grant William Prentice, 40 - Brooks, AB - May 6, 2009 - RCMP - tasered 2 times - "Official" cause of death: acute cocaine toxicity and "the medical examiner also concluded the taser did not play a role in the death"

Ain't it the truth!

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80% percent of the population could be moved in either direction

Human rights activist Susan Sontag, when asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.

THE Successes AREN'T the Problem

"The issue is not whether or not the taser can be used in a high percentage of cases to reduce death and/or physical trauma to officers and civilians alike. The issue is whether or not it's OK to kill the rest through ignorance and rationalization just because it's a small percentage ... The successes aren't the problem - the failures are. They're being told that tasers are nonlethal, so they blast away until people can't move. They're killing people by accident." Dave Siegler, father of Raymond Siegler, who died on February 12, 2004

The artistic side of Robert Bagnell

WE KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE

ROBERT ANGLEN

Robert Anglen, a reporter with The Arizona Republic, documented the first 167 Taser-related deaths. Mr. Anglen launched a journalistic investigation of Taser International, linking the Taser to multiple deaths, among other eye-openers.

At the 2005 Arizona Press Club Awards, Mr. Anglen won first place in the Investigative reporting category. He was the recipient of the Don Bolles Award for his report entitled "Taser tied to 'independent' study that backs stun gun'. “As part of an extraordinarily thorough investigation of Taser International, Anglen uncovered ‘smoking gun’ documents that showed the manufacturer was heavily involved in the key study that purported the devices are safe. Anglen also uncovered conflicts of interest and documented wide-spread problems with Taser safety — a matter of national and international public interest.”

In 2006, Mr. Anglen was a runner up for the Arizona Press Club's Virg Hill Journalist of the Year award. Peter Bhatia of The Oregonian wrote “Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter, pure and simple. Clearly, he is a reporter who, once he sinks his teeth into something, stays with it until the story is done. His ongoing work around the company that makes Tasers speaks to that."